illustrations, and an admirable preface, Svo, 1813; and other works of classical utility.

*15. 166.—THOMAS PEPYS DIED,

Brother of Samuel Pepys, whose Memoirs' have furnished so many amusing extracts for our volume. He thus describes his brother's funeral:-To church, and with the grave-maker chose a place for my brother to lie in, just under my mother's pew. But to see how a man's tombes are at the mercy of such a fellow, that for sixpence he would, (as his own words were) I will justle them together, but I will make room for him;' speaking of the fulness of the middle isle, where he was to lie. I dressed myself, and so did my servant Besse; and so to my brother's again: whither, though invited, as the custom is, at one or two o'clock, they come not till four or five. But at last, one after another, they come, many more than I bid and my reckoning that I bid was one hundred and twenty; but I believe there was nearer one hundred and fifty. Their service was six biscuits a-piece, and what they pleased of burnt claret. My cosen Joyce Norton kept the wine and cakes above; and did give out to them that served, who had white gloves given them. But above all, I am beholden to Mrs. Holding, who was most kind, and did take mighty pains, not only in getting the house and every thing else ready, but this day in going up and down to see the house filled and served in order to mine and their great content, I think; the men sitting by themselves in some rooms, and the women by themselves in others, very close, but yet room enough. Anon to church, walking out into the street to the Conduit, and so across the street; and had a very good company along with the corps. And being come to the grave as above, Dr. Pierson, the minister of the parish, did read the service for buriall: and so I saw my poor brother laid into the grave.

17.-SAINT PATRICK.

This is the tutelar saint of Ireland. He was born near Dumbarton in Scotland. After various and singular adventures, he went to Ireland, with a view to convert the barbarous natives. He travelled over the whole island, preached frequently, established schools, and instructed the natives in the use of the Roman letters. He died about the year 460, at an advanced age. The schools which he formed in Ireland long maintained a high reputation, and many from other countries went there to study. -See T. T. for 1824, p. 68, for some curious particulars in the life of this Saint.

18.-EDWARD, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS. He was stabbed at Corfe Castle, Dorsetshire, March 18th, 978, by order of Elfrida, his stepmother. The custom of pledging while drinking had its origin in the perpetration of this murder.--See T. T. for 1824, p. 69.

19.-PALM SUNDAY.

In the missals this day is denominated Dominica in ramis palmarum. It is in commemoration of our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, recorded in Matthew xxi, Mark xi, and Luke xix. Palm Sunday was also called Dominica Magna, the great Sunday,' in reference to the following week.

It was formerly the custom in some of the northern parts of England for the young men and maids who receive the sacrament, to walk after dinner into the corn fields, and repeat some forms of blessing the corn and fruits of the earth.-Kennett MS.

About ten o'clock at night, on the eve of Palm Sunday, the unwashed and lean artificers' of the eastern part of London, proceed in a body often amounting to several hundreds (many of them accompanied by their wives and children), to the Sluice House, at Hornsey, where, and in the adjoining fields, they carouse till the break of day, ' murdering

the sleep' of all faithful lieges in the neighbourhood with their obstreperous and John Bullish rejoicements. When morning dawns, they do not scruple to commit sundry trespasses on the grounds of the ' nobility and gentry,' collect their ' palm branches,' and in 'maudlin mood,' quarrelling with their spouses, and castigating their turbulent brats, they roll their weary way to dirt and wretchedness, not failing to insult every respectable person they may meet en route. We would not abridge the few, few pleasures of the labouring mechanic, pent in city close,' nor would we curtail him of the 'fair proportion' of his Sunday mornings' ramble over those fresh fields and pastures new,' which are daily vanishing from the precincts of our modern Babylonthe only opportunity he has of breathing a little 'pure air,' and refreshing his toil-worn limbs: yet we would recommend him to comport himself with respect to his superiors, and to return home in time to seek the house of prayer,' rather than spend the morning in witnessing pugilistic combats, encouraging dog-fighting, and giving way to inebriety, the parent of all evil and of all misery.

21.-SAINT BENEDICT

Was an Italian devotee of great austerity of manHe was born in the dukedom of Spoleto about the year 480, and died in the year 542.

ners.

*21. 1801.-VICTORY OF ALEXANDRIA.

If the martial exploits of a country be worthy a place in the minds of its people, or the deeds of illustrious forefathers deserving a hallowed remembrance in the hearts of their children, the bravery and heroism of the gallant ABERCROMBIE, as evinced in that memorable engagement at Alexandria, which decided the fate of Egypt, and told an usurper that 'thus far might he go and no farther,' ought to be indelibly fixed on the memory of every Briton.-It would ill suit the nature of this volume to give a full

detail of that important victory which this day saw achieved on the shores of the Bay of Aboukir: let it suffice, that the ambition of France, flushed by conquest and heated by warlike ardour, met its full fall at the hands of earth's noblest hero, the knight, sans peur et reproche, the brave Sir Ralph Abercrombie. After a bloody and desperate contest he overcame his foe, but his own blood signed the scroll of his honours and achievements. He fell early in the action; still, as life ebbed away, he continued to command, till at length nature yielded, and he sank with the palm of victory on his brow into the embraces of death. *21. 1656.-THOMAS CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, BURNT AT Oxford.

Cranmer had this peculiar aggravation of his calamity, that he was prevailed upon to abjure his principles and sign his recantation in the hopes of pardon. Being, notwithstanding this, brought to the stake, his confusion and shame were there inexpressible: there he retracted all that false promises had made him abjure; and resolving that the hand which had signed should first suffer, he held it out, with an intrepid countenance, in the flames, till it dropped off; frequently crying out, in the midst of his agony, that unworthy hand!

23.-MAUNDY THURSDAY.

This day is called, in Latin, dies mandati, the day of the command; being a commemoration of our Lord's washing the feet of his disciples. Annually, on this day, the lord almoner, or the sub-almoner, relieves at Whitehall as many poor men and as many poor women as agree with the years in the king's age. This practice was instituted by Edward III, in the year 1363.

On this day, at Rome, called The Day of the Lord's Supper, a particular Bull, called BULL in Cœna Domini, is read every year, in the Pope's presence, containing excommunications and anathemas against heretics, and all who disturb or oppose the jurisdiction of the Holy See. After the reading of the Bull, the Pope throws a burning torch in the public square, to denote the thunder of his anathema.-For further par

ticulars of this day, see T. T. for 1821, pp. 96-98; our last volume, pp. 67, 68; and Mr. Ellis's Original and Royal Letters from Autographs in the British Museum, vol. ii, p. 27, second edition, for a curious letter respecting Queen Catherine of Arragon 'keeping her Maundy.'

24.-GOOD Friday.

Holy Friday, or the Friday in Holy Week, was its more ancient and general appellation; the name Good Friday is peculiar to the English church.-It was observed as a day of extraordinary devotion. Buns, with crosses upon them, are usually eaten in London and some other places on this day, at breakfast.

It was formerly the custom, at Brazen-nose College, for the scholars to have almonds, raisins, and figs, for dinner on Good Friday, as appears by a receipt of thirty shillings, paid by the butler of the college, for eleven pounds of almonds, thirty-five pounds of raisins, and thirteen pounds of figs, serv'd into Brazen-nose College, Mar. 28th, 1662.'-Pointer's Oxon. Acad. p. 71.

At Hampstead, in Middlesex, a devout old maiden dying of a sickness, which, in her opinion, she had contracted by fasting too long on Good Friday, she bequeathed by will a perpetual fund, to be yearly employed in providing small loaves of white bread, to be distributed in the morning, before church time, to all inhabitants within the parish, and to all strangers.-Kennett MS.

The observation of Good-Friday by the Roman Catholics in Colombia, is thus described by Captain Cochrane in his interesting Journal of a Residence and Travels in that country in the years 1823, 4:'

Went to church about eight o'clock in the evening with Colonel Rieux. The curate, a young man, preached with great energy, and violent gesticulations, in a sing-song tone. The majority of the audience were women, and the church so excessively crowded,